A Heavy Noble of Henry Iv from Czechoslovakia

A HEAVY NOBLE OF HENRY IV FROM CZECHOSLOVAKIA

J. D. A. THOMPSON

WHILE searching for new examples of Richard II's gold coinage, I have come upon an interesting fifteenth-century hoard from central Europe; this was found in 1905 at Bratislava in Czechoslovakia (formerly the Hungarian town of Pozsony, once called Pressburg); it was deposited about 1430 and contained 132 pieces—gold florins of Hungary, Germany (Nuremberg) and Burgundy, and Venetian zecchini, together with seven English nobles (five of Edward III, one of Richard II, and the heavy noble of Henry IV to be described).1 The Bratislava discovery was only briefly reported at the time, but fortunately a list was preserved in the Archives of the Hungarian National Museum at Budapest, which acquired some of the coins. I am greatly indebted to Dr. Istvan Gedai of that institution for sending me details of the hoard and casts of three of the English pieces. The hoard is not in itself very remarkable, but it is an extremely good illustration of the way in which Northern and Southern currency-standards (represented at their extremities by the English noble of 120 gr., and the Venetian zecchino of 53 gr.) became mixed in the course of trade with the Hanseatic communities of the Baltic, and, more- over, it is one of the few recorded instances of English medieval gold found in Central Europe.2 The Bratislava example of Henry IV's heavy noble is of the London mint, and is unusually high in weight, 120-9 gr. Though double-struck, it is readable in most parts (PL X, 7). Obverse: fceHRHK DHK 6R7T[*?] ReX-TfRGIi-X-FRTmCU T>< WB^ [X omitted; 7fQ?] First word divided by the bowsprit; single annulet stops, some broken and others filled in so that they resemble pellets; French arms; four lis (one over three) = Blunt 1; bulwark ornaments, lis, lion, lis, lion, lis, lion, lis; crescent on rudder, with a small lis punched over it at an angle. Reverse-, (i.m. cross-pattee). IfcCbfiVTeflfi*TR7mSienS PGRS ffieDIVi IliliORVflO S IB7TT Saltire stops (none after transiens, but a die-flaw, consisting of a stroke pointing slightly upwards through the letters S, P, and 0. The first quarter of the reverse con- tains a lis in front of the lion (not over the lion's head as it is sometimes described).

1 Numismatikai Koslony, 1906, p. 139; Hungarian F. A. Walters in NC1905, p. 268; and this is confirmed National Museum, Archives, 385/1905, Inventory no. by hoards and single specimens—mostly of Richard 36B/1905—1—7. I cannot find a reference to this hoard II's coins—found in the Netherlands, France, Ger- in any other periodical. many, and Denmark. Recently Miss Lore Borne of " English nobles were being exported in con- State Museum Coin Cabinet in East Berlin, sent me siderable numbers to Denmark and other countries a photograph of a Richard II noble found in 1869 at in 1411 for trade with the Hansa towns, as noted by Posen (Poznan). 92 A HEAVY NOBLE OF HENRY IV FROM CZECHOSLOVAKIA It should be possible to assign this coin to a reasonably accurate place in the sequence of heavy nobles, on the basis of Mr. C. E. Blunt's classification of 1944, and his revised list of 1967.1

a b 'France ancient' 'France modern' FIG. 1. French arms on Henry IV nobles.

The points to be considered in more detail are these: (i) The French arms. On the Bratislava noble, these are semee of lis (= 'France ancient') covering the latest coins of Richard II and Blunt's types la and la/II of London (Fig. la). The same form was used on types I and III at Calais. (ii) The obverse legend reading DSI and omitting X (early form of et). Blunt does not list this particular variety, but it may provisionally be grouped with his coin of type II reading DI and omitting X. (iii) Broken annulet stops on the obverse. These are only recorded on one other coin (Blunt type II) with a lis on the rudder and French arms c (three lis = 'France modern'), usually said to have been introduced into the French shield in 1400 (Fig. 1 b and c). (iv) The rudder (Fig. 2a and b): The object punched over the crescent is clearly a lis and not a slipped trefoil. It is placed at an angle, obscuring the left-hand point of the crescent, but part of the centre and the right-hand point are visible. The overstruck mark (2b) is a new feature for all coins of types I and II except one example (2a) in the Ash- molean, which appears to have the lis above and not over the crescent. This may be an illusion due to wear, but in any case the lis is placed higher and straighten (v) The weight: Nobles of types I and II vary from 117 to 120 gr., with a low extreme of 98 gr.; some are of 112 gr., and Blunt suggests that these may belong to Richard Garner's indenture of 1409-11. The Bratislava coin goes to the opposite extreme of 120-9 gr., the highest weight yet recorded for heavy nobles. From this analysis of details, it is evident that the new coin belongs to the middle or last section of type II. It must come after the coins with a crescent alone on the rudder and French arms 1 (semee of four lis), and logically it should come before Blunt's type II with broken annulet stops on the obverse, a lis alone on the rudder and French arms c (three lis: two over one).

1 C. E. Blunt, 'The Heavy Gold Coinage of some remarks on that issue', in BNJ 1967, pp. 106- Henry IV', in BNJ 1941-4, pp. 22-7, with plate (nos. 13, with pi. xv, nos. 1-2. 1-11); 'Unrecorded heavy nobles of Henry IV and 93 A HEAVY NOBLE OF HENRY IV FROM CZECHOSLOVAKIA This leaves us with two small groups which do not quite fit into the sequence. The first comprises Blunt lb with a crescent on the rudder and French arms b (three lis: one over two), which is really another form of c and Ib/II, a coin discovered in the City of London in 1966, acquired by the Guildhall Museum, and published by Blunt in 1967 (pi. xv, no. 1). This has a crescent on the rudder and French arms b.

$a.rLMr Of jAYvyity WiUx Crescent

II - Red. - • - White CSllVWj

(a) (b) (a) (b) FIG. 4. FIG. 2. Crescent and lis FIG. 3. Lis punches. on rudder.

Secondly there is the Ashmolean coin (Blunt Ia/II, 1; fig. B), together with another (from the same dies?), sold at Christie's in 1959 on behalf of the Friends of Winchester Cathedral (Blunt Ia/II, 2), both with four lis in the arms and a lis (above?) the crescent on the rudder.1 There is one more feature which may be a guide to the exact sequence: the Bratislava noble has a 'standard' type of lis punch in the first quarter of its reverse. This punch is well enough formed, but has been a little distorted, partly due to slight imperfections in the cast (Fig. 3b), and it is very different to the thin version with an extra limb (Fig. 3a) which appears on coins of Ta/II and Ib/II (Oxford and Guildhall examples). It looks very much as though the lis was punched over a saltire. The 'standard' lis is used again in type II, and is succeeded by a saltire behind the lion in III. This suggests a system of privy marking, possibly connected with trials of the Pyx. When set out in Blunt's sequence, the heavy nobles of London follow each other approximately in this order. Ia. Crescent alone on rudder; French arms a; saltire stops; no mark in the reverse. Ib. Crescent alone on rudder; French arms b; old form of et = X; saltire stops; no mark in the reverse. Ib/II. Crescent alone on rudder; French arms b; saltire stops; lis (? over saltire) before lion in 4th quarter. Ia/II. Crescent and lis; French arms a; saltire stops; lis (? over saltire) before lion in the 2nd quarter. 'Ia-l/II' (Bratislava hoard). Crescent over lis: French arms a; old form of et = X; broken annulet stops on obv.; 'standard' lis in 1st quarter. II. Lis alone on rudder; French arms c; broken annulet stops on obv.; 'standard' lis in 2nd quarter. III. Pellet (?) alone on rudder; French arms c; new form of et = ^; saltire stops; saltire behind lion, in 2nd quarter. la and Ib should be the earliest coins because they carry on the Ricardian style, with the single mark of a crescent on the rudder and no mark in their reverses; on the other 1 The details of this Winchester coin are uncertain: Mr. Blunt was unable to get a cast at the time of the sale. 94 A HEAVY NOBLE OF HENRY IV FROM CZECHOSLOVAKIA hand, they show different forms of French arms. As I shall show, this mixture of old and new arms cannot have much significance in view of French practice in the fourteenth century. There may be room for some readjustment in the later sections, but we must put the new Bratislava coin near the end because of the broken stops and the 'standard' lis, which connect it directly with II, and the crescent and lis combination which links it with Ia/II (the Oxford coin; the Winchester Cathedral example cannot be ignored but is not certainly from the same dies). Nor can the Bratislava coin be put any earlier in the heavy series; that is, unless we put Blunt's type III before it. In view of the new and very late form of this does not seem possible. The obvious conclusion is that heavy nobles, and perhaps others of the 'intermediate' (112 gr.) coinage, were issued concurrently, before and during the crucial period of Richard Garner's indenture of 1409-11. They may indeed have been held back until the introduction of Henry's light coinage after November 1411, a proportion of heavy issues being struck from earlier dies and used for an experimental double or treble standard currency, intended to maintain the prestige of the English noble, while conforming in a limited way to a general lowering of quality in other European countries, in order to facilitate trade. The mixture of forms in the French arms does not really matter: the French themselves had used three lis as early as 1285 (on jetons), and Charles V had officially sanctioned their use on his current coins in 1364, apparently to distinguish his own arms from those of the English claimants who mostly used 'France ancient' (four lis, i.e. semee of lis).1 Richard II used both forms, though four hs is normal. Henry IV seems to have made no change at first, but F. A. Walters noted that Prince Henry used 'France modern' (three lis) in the sixth year of his father's reign (1405),2 and F. P. Barnard says that Henry introduced this form into the English shield on his Great Seal of 1406.3 On the other hand, he was still using four lis in 1413.4 It is noticeable that most, if not all, of the coins which may belong to Garner's experimental series of 112 gr. have four lis; if it were not for the indiscriminate use of the various types of arms, it might be inferred that the majority of heavy nobles with semee of lis were coined between 1399 and 1405-6, and all those with three lis from 1406 to the end of the reign, thus covering the Garner indenture. The crescent and lis on the obverse of heavy nobles may only be another series of privy marks, but their use does raise certain historical and heraldic questions. The lis itself is usually regarded as entirely 'Lancastrian', but was not commonly associated with that political party until the Wars of the Roses, and it was not used as a badge either by John of Gaunt, or his son Henry IV. The latter favoured the swan of the de Bohuns of Hereford, to whom he was related, but his arms as Duke of Lancaster in 1399 included a label of five points (the first two bearing ermine tails, the others lis).5

1 F. P. Barnard, English Numismatics (Postgraduate The Armorial Insignia of the Kings and Queens of lectures delivered at the Institute of Archaeology, England (London 1821), p. 30. Walters (op. cit., p. Liverpool University, 1910-12: bound manuscript 254) thought that the three lis with one above and volumes among the Barnard papers in the Ashmolean two below was a form of 'France ancient' (semee), archives (Arch. Ash. 32)), 1, pp. 275-6; J. Rouyer and but this does not seem likely. E. Huchet, Histoire du jeton du moyen age (Paris, 4 Willement, op. cit., pi. vii, fig. 1. 1858), pp. 45-6. 5 S. T. Aveling(Ed.), Heraldry, Ancient and Modern 2 F. A. Walters, 'The coinage of Henry IV', in (London, 1898; really an extended and revised version NC 1905, p. 253. of Boutell's Heraldry), p. 28, no. 370. 3 Barnard, op. cit.; T. Willement, Royal Heraldry. 95 A HEAVY NOBLE OF HENRY IV FROM CZECHOSLOVAKIA Similarly, the crescent was not one of Richard II's badges, though he used its partner the rayed sun. The sun and crescent moon (as may be seen on Irish coins of John)1 was an early Plantagenet device, derived from the Provengal coinage of Raimond VI and VII, Counts of Toulouse (c. 1148-1249), and the crusading Counts of Tripoli;2 nor is it certain when, why, or for how long the crescent was adopted by Henry IV. He was using it in 1400 if we can believe the Tudor historians Holinshed and Grafton. They relate a curious story concerning the short-hved rebellion of Thomas Holland, Earl of Kent (son of Richard II's half-brother, Thomas Holland). In 1400 the king was temporarily forced to retire from Windsor, and afterwards Holland went to Sonning and proclaimed that Richard was still alive at Pontefract, and at the head of a great army, and 'to cause his speech the better to be believed, he tooke awaye the King's cognizances from them that ware the same [,] as the collars [of ss] from their necks, and the badges of cressents from the sleeves of the servants of the householde, and throwing them awaie, said that such cognizances were no longer to be borne'.3 It seems from the development of the coinage that Henry appropriated a Ricardian mark, presumably to call attention to his common ancestry with the deposed king, and in order to emphasize his rather dubious claim. Thomas Holland's rebellion was so short (January 1400) that it is unreasonable to suppose that he ever controlled the Tower or any other mint; but it is interesting to see that his shield of arms was three lions passant-guardant with a silver border sometimes containing lis.4 Theoretically, he could have overstruck Henrican nobles with the crescent mark as an emergency measure; in practice he had (so far as I know) neither the facilities nor the time to do this. Two other people used a crescent in their arms, or as a personal badge. One of them was Henry de Beaufort, Bishop (afterwards Cardinal) of Winchester from 1404 to 1447. He bore a quartered English shield with a blue and silver border, and according to one authority, a crescent as his cadency mark.5 The other was Henry de Percy, Earl of Northumberland and father of Sir Henry 'Hotspur' Percy. It was the elder Percy, together with Archbishop Arundel of Canterbury, newly returned from exile, who negotiated an agreement between Henry Bolingbroke and Richard II at Conway in 1399, and it was Percy who is thought to have broken his oath and kidnapped Richard between Conway and Flint.6 In 1403 the Percies quarrelled with Henry and trans- ferred their allegiance to the Mortimer family (Earls of March), whom they considered to have a better claim to the throne. Their rebellion was checked, but not stopped, by Hotspur's death at Shrewsbury in 1405, and it was finally crushed when Northumber- land himself was killed at Bramham Moor in 1408. One of the Percy banners bore silver crescents mixed with the blue lion, and other badges of related families, while another bore a large silver crescent over alternate red and black stripes (Fig. 4),7 and followers of the Percies are known to have possessed livery collars of blue and silver composed of Ps and crescents.8

1 Cf. H. A. Grueber, Handbook (1899), pi. lvi, 4 Aveling, op. cit., p. 400, no. 481. no. 10. 5 Willement, op. cit. 2 Poey d'Avant, Monnaies feociales, ii, no. 3730 for 6 A. Steel, Richard7/(1941, reprinted 1962), p. 268. this general type; G. Schlumberger, Niumsmatique de 7 F. E. Hulme, Flags of the World (N.D.; c. 1887), VOrient Latin, pi. iv, nos. 4, 5, and 6. p. 15 and pi. ii, nos. 12 and 14. Unfortunately no 3 Barnard, op. cit.; Willement, op. cit., both citing source is given for these illustrations. Holinshed. The ss collar was an Henrican creation, 8 W. St. John Hope, Heraldry for Craftsmen and possibly before his accession. Designers (1929), p. 312 and fig. 186: Bequest of 96 A HEAVY NOBLE OF HENRY IV FROM CZECHOSLOVAKIA The 1403-8 rebellions were based almost entirely in Wales and the north, and the same difficulty applies to them: like Holland, the Percies are not likely to have controlled any mint, except perhaps York, and although they had a great deal more time in which to strike coins or to alter Henry's nobles, the crescent-lis issues are so obviously of London style, that this theory is untenable. The overstriking must have been authorized by Henry himself for some unexplained reason, possibly about 1403-5.

FURTHER NOTES ON MR. BLUNT'S LIST OF 1967 (A) Heavy noble of Calais, type Ha, no. 1 (Additional). B.M., ex Walters, 1913. 'Came from France in Feb. 1912 and was probably found there not long before.' I can suggest two possible sources for this coin. (i) A hoard of 145 gold pieces, found in a grey vase at Coudekerke-Branche near Dunkirk, in March 1911. This find included coins of Louis de Male of Flanders, issues from Brabant, Holland, and the Palatinate, together with one Edward III noble (Revue Numismatique, 1912, p. 284, summary report). (ii) The most probable origin is a gold hoard discovered at Courtrai in 1904. This contained 'about 200' English pieces 'of many varieties', including thirty nobles of Edward III, eighteen unspecified Anglo-Gallic coins, and some gold lions of Flanders (Bulletin de Numismatique, 1904, p. 113; Gazette Numismatique, May 1905, p. 152; Revue Suisse de Numismatique, 1906, p. 319. All short notices without details of individual coins). (B) Light noble of London. Obverse reads JHR7TG and *7T; slipped trefoil on ship's hull. Reverse: JflQeDIVtfmimORV*; slipped trefoil above (before?) lion in fourth quarter. Weight 108 gr. Ex Dymock (Sotheby 1858), Murchison 77 and Sir John Evans (Duplicates sale); Spink 1911, to A. R. Bay ley of Great Malvern. Bequeathed to the Ashmolean in 1948, but found to be missing with the rest of Bayley's English coins, and never recovered. Listed by Bayley in his manuscript slip catalogue, as no. 177 (Ash- molean Archives, 10). This coin was included among the Henry V nobles in Murchison's sale. (C) Light noble of London. Obverse reads *KR7JG and ffiCL; slipped trefoil on ship's hull and in second quarter of reverse. French arms c (three lis). No weight given. Drabble (i), 94, not illustrated. Probably from the Grantley collection (also not illustrated), and should be of the same group as the Dymock-Evans-Bayley coin; it may even be from the same obverse die, though I cannot see a saltire stop before M. (D) Light noble of London, Details of obverse obscure, but there is an annulet on the ship, and the legend may read The reverse may read "flftSDIVftMIillORVflft, and there is undoubtedly a slipped trefoil in the first quarter. The It in the centre has a pellet to left. No weight is given.

William Stowe of Ripon to the Shrine of St. Wilfrid the Chapter House of Wells Cathedral, and is asso- in 1430, of his livery [collar] Anglice cressaunt. Hope ciated with shields of King Henry IV, Thomas, Duke (p. 302) also notes the representation of a blue and of Clarence (ob. 1421), and Edmund Mortimer, Earl silver ss collar encircling a gold star within a silver of March (ob. 1425). crescent. This comes from a stained-glass window in 97 A HEAVY NOBLE OF HENRY IV FROM CZECHOSLOVAKIA This coin was found in 1968 in the Abbey of Sainte-Trinite de la 'Luizerne', in Normandy, together with forty-three other gold coins, including nobles (and one half- noble) of Henry V and VI, salutes and one angelot of Henry VI, one Burgundian noble of Philip the Bold, and French coins from Charles V to Charles VII. The hoard must have been deposited about 1452, at the time when Charles VII had confiscated the temporal powers of the Abbey for siding with the English. This hoard was offered for sale by Vinchon of Paris in April 1969.1 (E) Quarter noble (of light coinage?); Blunt no. 7? Lis above shield and in centre of reverse. Weight not given. Howard Walker sale, Glendining 17.6.42, lot 7 (Not illustrated). Similar to Bruun 372 = Ryan 26 ? 1 Monnaies d'or royales frangaises, flamandes et graph of the coin is not good enough for an exact anglaises provenant du tresor decouvert en L'Abbaye description, but the coin itself looks to be in good state, Sainte-Trinite da la 'Luizerne', Normandie, en 1968 if a little clipped. (Paris, Hotel Drouot, 21 Apr. 1969), lot 27. The photo-

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